The idea that different people from different nations, cultures and traditions can come together in peace is among the core values of scouting.
Of course, we could also make sure we have nothing to do with organizations that differ from us in any way. It would mean defending our values better. I should never get along with people who don’t share all of my values, and I should never attempt to find something in common with them or even do things together with them.
Really, it’s much more in keeping with my values to tell kids that there are scouts all over the world, and wherever they may go, they will find friends who have something in common with them. I won’t tell them that the scouts of Saudi Arabia aren’t real scouts because Saudi Arabia is an evil place where they don’t share my values.
Name an issue. I’ll be happy to tell you where Austrian scouts stand on that (if they agree at all). I’d say that Austrian scouts are on average definitely on the progressive side of things with respect to Austrian standards. Many countries are more conservative than Austria, others less. The same is true for scouts.
As a long-time volunteer / scouter / scoutmaster / scout leader, I embrace the “weird” label if it’s applied in a positive way; I’m offended by it if it’s applied in conjunction with some completely off-base prejudice.
Paramilitary? Probably depends on how you define the term. We Austrian scouts are antimilitarist enough to be offended by the word. Yes, we have uniforms derived from miltary tradition. So does the Red Cross.
How do Scout Leaders “give it away”?
And yes, we still have things called “patrols”. It’s the traditional name for a group of usually about 5 to 8 kids who do things together; it’s been shown again and again to be the ideal group size for kids organizing themselves to do stuff. So, when we’ve got a group of, say 18 scouts, we’ll split them up into 3 “patrols”. Those patrols won’t go “on patrol”, but many things that need doing and many things that come up during games and other activities will be done in those small groups.
The “Imperial legacy” never really made it out of Britain, who else would care about the British empire? I might not know what you’re talking about.
I wouldn’t call intentionally taking British boys from different classes in 1907, sticking them all in a uniform so that you can’t tell their social class from their clothing, and telling them all to use the right fork and shave regularly (once they get older) “class oppression”. I’d rather call it a 1907 attempt at working towards class equality.
There’s a grain of truth there; scouts, on the whole, are not anti-establishment. Mostly, we’re trying to help raise kids who will be “good citizens” in that they constructively take part in society and improve what needs improving. We usually don’t encourage them to become all-out rebels who want to tear down everything but end up achieving nothing before they grow old and settle down. If that’s not enough anarchism for some people, I can respect that, but it’s a far cry from instilling conformism.
Have a look at the vision statement of the Austrian scouts:
https://www.ppoe.at/service/pdf/leitbild_englisch.pdf
Interesting. I have no idea about all the groups that split off in the US; locally, all the groups that split off from “mainstream” scouting that I am aware of are on the conservative side of things and did not want to evolve.
Not sure how much I would agree; after all, there was a lot of self-organisation involved with how scouting started internationally. Scout groups that were popping up all over the world basically had Baden-Powell’s writings to go on, and only some lose contacts with the people involved with British scouting at first.
So Smith and the BB were largely unknown to the early founders of scouting in most other countries. It only had indirect influence by affecting the ideas and writings of Baden-Powell.
At the same time, in Germany and Austria, ideas from other local youth movements had more influence. I guess the story is similar for most places.
